Ultrasonics have been utilized for many years in a variety of diagnostic, therapeutic, and research purposes. Some uses of sonic or acoustic energy in materials processing include for breaking up and/or mixing of fluid suspensions of the materials being treated. Additional uses are in solubilizing or otherwise ensuring that all or substantially all of the constituents of a sample are in solution and/or in suspension. Regardless of the particular use, sample materials are typically contained in a plastic or glass enclosure, such as vials, tubes, culture plates/well, sample trays, or micro-titer plates, with the energy produced by an acoustic transducer coupled to the material in the enclosure by way of a coupling medium, such as water.
Micro-titer plates holding hundreds or even thousands of different samples have become widely used in research, development, and testing. The samples contained in the wells of the plates can be processed, for example mixed, individually or in groups, such as row-by row, by exposure to a focused acoustic beam. Acoustic mixing occurs by a number of processes, such as temperature, cavitation and acoustic streaming, and has been shown to improve antibody detection and reduce incubation times. However, most acoustic sample processing is still performed manually in small batches and processing parameters are determined empirically.
Accordingly, there is a need for acoustic systems and methods that provide automated, precise materials processing or reaction control, in particular for automated processing of large quantities of samples to be used, for example, in subsequent analytical processes and/or assays.